Stone Shape question.

[D4rkh0rus]

This surfaced in the middle of a session.

The Stone Shape Spell (the druid 3 spell) says that:

There is a 30% chance that any shape including moving parts simply doesn’t work.

Now, I used it to raise up the stone in a floor, to make a makeshift bridge.
My DM thinks that the 30% Fail chance is on -every- shape, while I believe its only on the ones that require moving parts.

Since it was a simple Bridge, no actual moving parts.

Small discussion later, DM invoked Rule 0, I rolled and we moved on.


So, I ask the playground.

How does Shape Stone work in this respect?

[Khedrac]

It's up to the DM, as it's a spell open to abuse but...

I think you are correct - there is no comma or other punctuation to separate "including moving parts" into a sub-phrase, and if the sentence wasn't intended to be specific to those including moving parts then the words would not be there at all.

Therefore this has to mean that "any shape including moving parts has a 30% chance of not working" - it's just a shame they did not work it that way round.

[XionUnborn01]

Yeah, your DM was pretty far off on this.

Stone Shape is able to make any shape, which you already realize. The spell gives examples of coffers and doors before stating the 30% failure chance.

Basically the spell says that if you're making a door, the details are hard to get correctly formed and the hinges or handles might not work. Or if say you make a trapdoor the trap or hinge mechanism may get jammed or not move correctly and that's the 30% failure.

If you make a sledgehammer or a wall, there's not reason for for the spell to fail because it's a ball on a stick or just a stone slab.

That failure is there to keep the spell from being too powerful.

[graeylin]

DM wrong. There's a 30% chance that any shape with a moving part won't work.

Note: to me, that doesn't mean the shape fails, or the spell fails. Just that the moving part doesn't work.

So, a drawbridge could still be a bridge, it just won't raise/lower. A door could be a door, it just won't open.

[ShaneMRoth]

Now, I used [the Stone Shape spell] to raise up the stone in a floor, to make a makeshift bridge.
My DM thinks that the 30% Fail chance is on -every- shape, while I believe its only on the ones that require moving parts.

Since it was a simple Bridge, no actual moving parts.

Small discussion later, DM invoked Rule 0, I rolled and we moved on.


So, I ask the playground.

How does Shape Stone work in this respect?

In the judgment of that DM, Stone Shape appears to have a 30% of failure whenever it is used.

Your DM's ruling appears to contradict a plain read of the spell description.

So be it.

Now that you know how the spell actually functions in that game, you can adjust your approach to using the spell.

As a player, I would not include that spell in my character's spell prep during the course of an adventure. If I felt the need to use the spell I would carry a Wand of Stone Shape so that I could account for the margin of error.

Unless this DM wrote this down and made it part of a formal errata or clarification or house rule, there is a very real possibility that the DM will forget and rule differently next time the spell is used.

It doesn't sound like a game-breaker, so I hope the OP can live with it.